Updates

I haven't written in a while, just hurts so bad and I've been trying physical therapy for my knee and neck injuries and surgery. Unfortunately, my insurance will only let me have three more visits this year and it's only mid-July. I don't know how I'll survive without it.

The EMG results came back as abnormal, naturally, when has anything done to me been normal? Always been the Abby normal person. (OK, so I might have seen Young Frankenstein a few too many times, but it fits, so why not borrow it?) I saw my regular doctor last Friday and he went over the EMG results with me and let me know I have another debilitating injury. While the knee surgeon was fixing a torn meniscus, my doctor feels that the surgeon cut the nerve in my leg that controls my calf and toes. Why Me? My doctor has been a physician for many decades and has treated hundreds of thousands of patients in his years, but I am the first one he's seen with this injury. It's that rare. Yeah, that's my life. He showed me the nerve and all it does in his medical book. He was stunned I hadn't been shown it and told what happens next. What can I say? I'm a medical marvel. :(

I go back to the neck surgeon at the end of the month and we'll see if there's anything else that can be done. No appointment with the knee surgeon until next month. He told me he can't do anything about the nerve damage in my lower leg except give me more pills. They don't help. He offered to double the dose. Woo Hoo! Double the dose of a medicine that doesn't work? Gee thanks! This is from a orthopedic surgeon. The man has 12 years of specialized schooling, plus several years of residency and that's all he can do about a mistake he made? How about admitting it and apologizing. I know he's afraid I'll sue and win. There's no other way the nerve could have been damaged. It was working before he did the knee surgery and now I have nerve damage?

I am no longer able to work. It killed me when I was told I was no longer able to work. I had been a newspaper/magazine reporter for 20 years. It was a huge part of my identity. When I was made a staff reporter for a large newspaper in my region of Northwestern PA, it was one of the best days of my life. I was a wife, mother of one daughter with a son on the way and had my dream job. I did my best to work daily and take my monthly turn on Saturday night. I wound up in the ER far too often after covering a lengthy court day or other long days working. The day after I used my last sick day, they called me into the editor's office and fired me. That was a massive blow and I cried the whole 45-minute drive home and well into the night. I was taking time off to try and heal when I got called by another newspaper I had worked as a stringer (write articles as they need) for them for another decade or more. I covered the beginning court case of a gruesome murder and even dug up the best friend of the accused murderer and had an exclusive interview with him. The editor was thrilled! The police hadn't even found him yet.

Will write more later about our local firemen's annual parade and carnival that was last week. Also about have my niece Taryn. Was so wonderful having her all to ourselves. She's 9 and such a sweet girl! We couldn't love her more if she were our blood niece.